Ladybird Song

“Ladybird, Ladybird” is a traditional English nursery rhyme about the little spotted beetle we call the ladybird. In North America, where the beetle is called a ladybug, the rhyme usually begins “Ladybug, Ladybug” instead. It has been sung to children for nearly 300 years.

Ladybird (ladybug) Quick Facts

Common name	Ladybird (ladybug)
Scientific name	Coccinellidae
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Class	Insecta
Order	Coleoptera
Type	Insect (beetle)
Diet	Mostly aphids and other small insects
Habitat	Gardens, meadows, hedgerows, farmland and woodland
Native range	Worldwide
Size	Most about 1-10 mm long
Colours	Often red, orange or yellow with black spots
Special feature	Star of a nursery rhyme first printed in 1744

Where does the rhyme come from?

The rhyme is very old. The earliest known printed version appeared in 1744, in one of the first collections of nursery rhymes ever published in English. It was almost certainly being said aloud by children and parents long before then.

Folk song experts keep track of traditional songs and rhymes in a big catalog called the Roud Folk Song Index, where “Ladybird, Ladybird” is number 16215.

The words of the rhyme

Like many old rhymes, “Ladybird, Ladybird” has been passed from person to person, so there are lots of different versions. One of the most common goes like this:

Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home, / Your house is on fire and your children are gone, / All except one, and her name is Ann, / And she hid under the baking pan.

There is also a shorter, grimmer version:

Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home, / Your house is on fire, your children shall burn!

So many versions

In different places and families, the words change. The child who stays behind might be called Ann, Anne, Nan or Little Anne, and she might hide under a warming pan, porridge pan, frying pan or pudding pan. Some versions are quite different:

All except one and her name was Aileen, / And she hid under a soup tureen.

In some versions, the little one is not hiding at all, but busy at work:

Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home, / Your house is on fire, your children all roam, / Except little Nan, who sits in her pan, / Weaving gold laces as fast as she can.

A version from Peterborough in England has a boy instead of a girl:

Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home, / Your horse is on foot, your children are gone, / All but one, and that’s little John, / And he lies under the grindle stone.

Other versions say “your children alone” or “your children will roam”. In parts of the United States, similar chants were also said to doodlebugs (antlion larvae), asking them to come out of their sandy pits.

A gentler poem

Writers have also made up longer, softer poems based on the rhyme. One, which appears in collections of poems for children, tells the ladybird to hurry home at bedtime because the field mouse has gone to her nest, the daisies have closed their petals, and the evening dew is starting to fall on her speckled wings.

The rhyme also pops up in modern stories. For example, a version is used in a Nancy Drew mystery, where the hidden child is called “Sweet Charlotte Ann”.

What does the rhyme mean?

Nobody knows for sure where the rhyme came from, but there are some interesting ideas.

One popular explanation links it to farming in the past. After harvest, farmers sometimes burned the old stalks and plant remains left in their fields, such as the vines in hop gardens. Ladybirds and their young often lived on these plants because they were full of aphids to eat. Adult ladybirds could fly away from the smoke and flames, and some larvae could crawl away. But the pupae, which are fixed to the plants and cannot move, would be trapped.

In this idea, the little girl hiding under the pan, or “weaving her laces”, is like a ladybird pupa: she is stuck where she is until she is ready to come out. It is a sad picture, but it may explain why the rhyme talks about the ladybird’s house being on fire.

Another idea is simpler. Children often chant the rhyme when a ladybird lands on their hand, then blow gently to help it fly away. It may just be a fun way of saying goodbye to a little beetle.

Ladybird superstitions

Ladybirds have long been seen as lucky in many cultures. People have believed that:

• seeing a ladybird, or having one land on you, brings good luck;
• killing a ladybird brings bad luck;
• if a ladybird lands on a young woman’s hand, she will soon be married;
• if you make a wish and the ladybird flies away while you say the rhyme, your wish will come true.

Of course, these are just old stories, but they show how much people have always liked these cheerful little beetles.

Why ladybirds really are lucky for gardeners

There is a good reason farmers and gardeners welcome ladybirds. Many kinds, both adults and larvae, eat huge numbers of aphids (greenfly) and other small insects that damage plants. A single ladybird can eat thousands of aphids during its life.

So the next time a ladybird lands on you, you can say the rhyme, make a wish and let it fly away gently. It is a good lesson in respecting small creatures, and the ladybird will go back to helping the garden.

Related: Ladybug Meaning Symbolism

Ladybird (ladybug) FAQs